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Recovery of Maritime Market

7/29/2010

Gouda – Imtech, technical services provider in Europe and for the global maritime market, is observing a recovery of the technological maritime market in the Far East and Singapore. Imtech draws this conclusion based on of the growing intake of orders in this region over the past few months. In this period, Imtech has obtained new orders representing a total value of 36 million euro. With a total of 10 local offices, Imtech has a strong position in this region and sees good opportunities for further growth in the near future.

Imtech CEO René van der Bruggen: 'I just came back from a visit to our key business locations in China and Singapore. The maritime economic climate is recovering there. This region is developing into an important centre for global shipping. In the first half-year of 2010, over 200 contracts for the construction of new ships were put on the market - considerably more than last year. With our main offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore and six secondary offices in other maritime centres, we cover the market segments offshore and special vessels, work boats, container vessels, bulk carriers, luxury yachts and navy vessels. The combination of complex (tailor-made) technical total solutions, innovative technology in the area of automation, energy, navigation & communications, and proven technology ensures that Imtech can offer an extensive range of services to both Asian shipyards and Western owners who order their vessels to be built there. Imtech focuses on new construction and upgrading, maintenance and management in relation to a ship's total lifecycle. This year, we expect to cross the line of 100 million euro in order intake in this region for the first time, thanks to, among other things, the fact that the various offices work together more intensively and are able to realise the synergies of cross-selling.'

In the last quarter of 2009, particularly in Singapore, there was a recovery in oil and gas markets thanks to the demand for energy picking up in the Asian region. For example, Imtech received orders to supply technical solutions on board a Boskalis rock dumping vessel, an Acergy heavy-lift crane vessel/pipelayer, an offshore support ship owned by Drydocks World Singapore and various high-tech navigation & communications, hardware/software and telecommunications projects on board ships and offshore platforms owned by Gazflot, Noble Drilling, Saipem and Modec/Petrobas. Options have also been signed for multiple ships and platforms in the near future.

The Chinese demand for steel and iron have picked up considerably at the start of this year. Thanks to this growing demand, and the increase in global trade, the maritime container and bulk market is showing a recovery. Shipping traffic is increasing. For Imtech, this entails an increase in the number of orders for upgrading and a higher volume of maintenance orders. In addition, Imtech is active as a technology partner in the market for new construction, which is picking up at Chinese shipyards such as the Ouhua Shipyard, Dao Da Shipyard, Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, PACC Yeuxin Ocean Engineering Shipyard and the Fujian South East Shipyard. Besides navigation & communications technology, Imtech is also involved in a number of energy distribution programmes and 'green' technology.

The market for luxury yachts and navy vessels stays at the desired level for Imtech in this region, as is evidenced by orders to supply technology on board two 45-m long high-tech 'Porsche Design' catamarans in Vietnam, integrated platform management systems for two minesweepers of the Singapore Navy and an order to supply spare parts to the South Korean Navy.